BUMPER CROP: Potatoes need to be planted now to be ready for Christmas Day. NZME picture
Harvesting and eating new potatoes is a joy many look forward to each year. If it’s on your wish list to have them ready by Christmas Day, now is the time to get organised.
Super spudsPotatoes are a delicious and productive vegetable to grow at home and can even be grown in pots.
It is best to use seed potatoes rather than supermarket potatoes, as seed potatoes are certified as disease and pest-free, and haven’t been sprayed with sprouting inhibitors.
If you want a crop of spuds in time for Christmas, now is the time to start your potato patch or pot:
• Potatoes prefer a deep, slightly acidic soil with good moisture levels. Before planting, enrich the soil first by digging in some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food, which will add valuable organic matter to the soil, help to improve soil structure and attract earthworms and beneficial soil microorganisms.
• For pots, use a well-drained container or special potato bag and fill with a 20cm layer of good quality potting mix, such as Yates Premium Potting Mix.
• Plant the seed potatoes about 15cm deep into the soil or potting mix and then apply a layer of mulch, about 15cm deep. Pea or Lucerne straw make fantastic mulches.
• The potatoes will start to sprout in a few weeks and green stems and leaves will develop.
• As green shoots emerge through the mulch after about a month, apply additional layers of mulch and a sprinkling of more Yates Dynamic Lifter. Mulch protects the potatoes from sunlight, which turns potatoes green and inedible, and the increasing layers allow more stems and thus potatoes to develop up the stem.
• Keep the soil or potting mix consistently moist.
• It takes about four months for potatoes to fully mature, with the appearance of flowers or the plant starting to yellow being indicators of them being ready to harvest. Impatient gardeners can harvest some tender baby potatoes a little earlier by gently feeling around under the mulch and removing individual spuds.
A note on frost: If you live in a cold area, it’s important the new potato stems are not exposed to frost, so delay planting so that stems emerge after the chance of frost has passed.
Potato tip: Before planting, put seed potatoes into a well-lit (out of sunlight) spot for a few weeks so they develop small shoots, in a process is called “chitting”. Egg cartons make a great place to chit your potatoes.
Sugarsnap peasSugarsnap peas are such a versatile vegetable. Both the pea and pod are juicy and flavoursome, and you can choose to pick the whole pods while they’re young and tender (they’re delicious in a stir-fry) or shell the pod when mature and enjoy the sweet delicious peas inside.
Yates Climbing Sugarsnap Peas are great for sowing during early spring throughout New Zealand. Being a climber, they don’t take up too much horizontal space and are perfect for growing up a 2m tall trellis or support on a sunny fence or wall. You can also grow sugarsnap peas in a pot on a sunny balcony or patio. They’re a prolific cropper and are quick to grow. You can start harvesting about eight to 10 weeks after sowing.
Here’s your simple sugarsnap pea growing guide:
• Peas should be sown in a spot that receives at least six hours of sunshine a day.
• Sow seeds directly where they are to grow, 25mm deep into damp soil that has been enriched first with some Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food. Or for pot-grown peas, choose a pot at least 30cm wide and fill with a quality potting mix like Yates Premium Potting Mix.
• Don’t water again for a few days as pea seeds can rot if they’re too wet.
• Seedlings should pop up in about 10 days.
• To encourage a great harvest, as soon as the seedlings are established start feeding each week with Yates Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser, which is boosted with extra potassium, which promotes flowering and pod development.
• To promote healthy plant growth and lots of pea flowers and pods, continue applying Yates Thrive Flower & Fruit Soluble Fertiliser every one to two weeks and keep the soil moist.
• Pick pods regularly to help maximise the harvest.
• At the end of the harvesting season, dig spent plants into the soil to add extra organic nitrogen. — Courtesy of Yates